New Hornady Shotgun Slugs

Several new Hornady shotgun slug loads have been announced at the 2013 NASGW Expo: two Superformance shotgun slugs and an SST Lite Shotgun Slug.

The new Superformance slugs will be available in both 12 gauge and 20 gauge. Both loads use a MonoFlex slug. Originally developed for lever guns, the MonoFlex design uses a monolithic hollowpoint bullet with the famous Hornady Flex Tip. The slugs are made from a gilding metal, instead of pure copper, to increase their strength and retain 95% of original weight. This helps the slugs to penetrate deeply.

The 12 gauge load uses a 300 grain slug, which leaves the muzzle at about 1950 fps. That works out to be about 2533 ft-lb of energy. The 20 gauge version uses a 250 grain slug that makes for 1800 fps and a muzzle energy of 1798 ft-lb.

Both the 12 and 20 gauge Superformance slugs carry a $19.81/box of five MSRP.

The SST Lite shotgun slug is a 12 gauge slug with reduced recoil. The SST Lite uses the same 300 grain projectile as the full power SST load, and has a muzzle velocity of 1575 fps. That is slightly less than the full power’s 2000 fps. At the muzzle, the SST Lite slug is making 1652 ft-lb of energy.

Hornady states felt recoil is reduced by 30%. Although marketed as an ideal option for youngsters and women, I’ve often appreciated reduced recoil loads when shooting a lot of rounds in training. I’ve never minded full power loads, but when putting a lot of lead downrange in a relatively short amount of time, any kind of recoil reduction is nice.

MSRP on the Hornady SST Lite is $15.87/box of five.

These new Hornady slug loads are only some of the new products we saw at last week’s NASGW Expo. Make sure you check out this page to see all of the other announcements and new guns.